Middle College
February 2023 Newsletter
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March 12: Daylight Saving Time Starts
March 17: Middle College Dance
March 17: St. Patrick's Day
March 20: First Day of Spring
March 27-31: Spring Break!
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- Fill out this survey if you're interested in helping make the 2022-2023 yearbook
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What's In This Newsletter:
Valentines Day, Shadow Day, Black History Month, some helpful tips and much more!
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Valentines Day Cookie Decorating |
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A couple of days before Valentine’s Day, the MC Effect Local club hosted a cookie decorating fundraiser for the Bay Area Rescue Mission. The event featured home-made cookies and Valentine’s-colored frostings (red, pink, and white) made by the co-leaders, Clara Sapugay and Lindsay Liu. It was a massive success with a great turnout, and the club thanks everyone who was able to make it.
-Devin Gowdy-
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The History Behind Valentines Day
By Sarah Grover
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I’m sure most of us are aware of the day of love—Valentine’s Day. But led to the creation of a specific day just for love? Well, since you’re reading this, you will soon find out.
Historians can't yet pinpoint where the holiday originated, but they can trace how the Valentine's Day traditions have evolved over time. The holiday's origin might come from the ancient pagan festival of Lupercalia in Rome, predating Christianity. Many of the traditions of this festival from back then match ours today—which include celebrating it in the middle of February and pairing off partners; however, some traditions were rather bloody and required sacrifice…literally. To sum up the not-so-lovely-tradition, goats would be sacrificed, cut into strips and then used to slap women—which supposedly made them more fertile for the upcoming year… I guess now we know where the red-color association comes from! Although, when Christianity took over and was embraced by Romans, the festival itself evolved into honoring Saint Valentine. As Lupercalia was eventually outlawed at the end of the 5th century, around the same time Pope Gelasius declared February 14 as St. Valentine's Day—or Valentine’s Day as we call it. While St. Valentine’s identity is up for debate, some historians believe that he was most likely a priest who was arrested for marrying, a decree which was violated, and eventually, he was executed for continuing his affair in secret. Other historians believe that St. Valentine was a priest who fell in love with one of his visitors and began writing “love” letters to her (the story ends with a letter he sent to his beloved right before his execution, which he signed off with “from your Valentine”). While both the versions have romantic bases, they still aren’t verified— I suppose it is only fair to assume that whoever St. Valentine was, he was martyred for falling in love.
As time flew, Valentine’s Day transformed into the day we celebrate today— perhaps we owe a thank-you to romantic English Poets Geoffrey Chaucer and William Shakespeare for their works that made this day popular over the years. By the 18th century, it was common for friends and lovers to celebrate Valentine’s Day with gifts and notes. Then, the Industrial Revolution in the 19th Century helped this day spread from the "Old World" into the "New World" through the printing of Valentine’s Cards; indeed, Hallmark Cards of Kansas City, Missouri, mass produced Valentine’s Cards which ultimately built the home for Valentine’s Day that we celebrate today.
Valentine's Day may have had a brutal history; however, surprisingly, the brutal segments don’t really have much effect on the celebrated day today. So the only thing left to do now is to buy a few chocolates and share them with the ones you love— whether they are your friends or your partner.
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Shadow Week
By Kelly Nelson and Anastasia Prusakova
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Shadow Week was a huge success! Thank you to all the sophomores and juniors who participated and helped make this happen. As we watch our community grow and as the 2022-2023 school year is coming to an end, we are excited to welcome a new class into the upcoming school year here at Middle College.
Again, thank you sophomores for coming to CSM and giving the opportunity for MC students to give you a tour of the beautiful campus and share what life is like here at Middle College. We hope to see everyone next year and welcome them into our community. Finally, thank you MC students and teachers for organizing this event and making this possible for the sophomores. We appreciate your time and dedication to this week!
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Black History Month
By Jaden Luke
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Recognized by various institutions nationwide, Black History Month takes place every year and “pay[s] tribute to the generations of African Americans who struggled with adversity to achieve full citizenship in American society” (blackhistorymonth.gov). First recognized in 1976 by President Gerald R. Ford, February was chosen because of two Americans who helped shape Black American history: Abraham Lincoln, whose birthday is February 12, and Frederick Douglass, whose birthday is February 14. During the month of February, one is bound to see black (resilience), red (the bloodshed of innocent Black lives throughout history), yellow (optimism, justice, and equality), and green (Africa’s greenery). February is a time to celebrate the rich history of Black Americans in the United States and their contributions to our society today.
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Browse through the National Archives website here.
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Read about Black History through twenty books here.
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Watch movies by Black directors here.
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Presidents Day
By Michaela Gonzalez and Megan Morales
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Presidents Day: a day that not many people may begin to give a second thought about. However, almost every work or educational institution gets the day off. President’s day is one of the few holidays, along with labor day, that many students are unaware of the history behind.
For many who are unaware, President’s Day falls on the third Monday of February. In 2023 it was February 20th, in commemoration of all the past and present U.S Presidents. Originally a national holiday in 1885 to celebrate George Washington’s birthday, it was turned into a holiday to celebrate all Presidents in 1971. (History.com)
After the President's Day weekend, we reached out to a small group of students at Middle College to ask them about their thoughts on the holiday.
Mariana Lopez revealed that she spent her holiday with her family addressing the country's immigration policies, highlighting the significance of reflecting on current affairs during this holiday weekend. While others, such as Dee Friedman and V Seltzer, proposed the argument that there are more important things on America’s to-do list than celebrating old Presidents. "Most presidents don't deserve to be celebrated", claimed V, viewing the holiday as nothing more than a day off. Steven Acuna also agrees with the unknown reasons behind this holiday, with "I really don’t know what it is, but I am grateful we have the day off".
In an alternate perspective, Nick Gonzalez, expressed gratitude for what our presidents have accomplished overall, while Toyo Andenekan viewed the day as a moment to unwind, catch up on life, and rest while still uniting as a nation to honor our presidents.
Needless to say, the sentiments were diverse, with some using the opportunity to reflect on the country's present policies, while others regarded it as just a weekend free. Several kids, though, expressed gratitude for the holiday and the leaders it celebrates. What does President’s day mean to us all?
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Rejected From College? What Now?
By Devin Gowdy
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With college admissions decisions around the corner, it’s time to discuss how to deal with rejection letters. Unless you were the perfect applicant (which in that case, you can ignore the rest of this article), rejection letters are inevitable.
So what can you do when you receive a rejection letter?
First, you can check to see if the university has an appeals process. This allows rejected applicants to appeal their rejection letters if they feel that there is a reason that their admissions decision should be reversed. It should be noted that reversals are rare; however, it could be worth looking into, especially if your admissions circumstances have significantly changed since you submitted your application.
Some schools will state that they do or do not have an appeals process on their website, but many times they won’t specify. In that case, the best thing you can do is call the school and ask what the appeals process looks like. Usually, you can make your case in a short letter to the admissions office coupled with supplemental recommendations or transcripts. (All the UCs have an appeals process with differing criteria).
The second thing you can do is transfer to the school. In my previous article “The Benefits of Transferring from CSM,” I explained that transferring to your school of choice is a great opportunity for Middle College students since we have completed so many transferable college courses. Transferring can also be a second chance to be admitted into a school you were rejected from.
The last thing you can do is assess your options and be grateful that the anticipation of that college decision is finally over. When you do receive a rejection letter, just know that there are so many options available to you, and you will succeed regardless of which path you choose.
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For all of our space lovers out there, I’m sure that you have all heard about the comet that has graced our skies. Comet C/2022 E3 or the Green Comet, was first spotted in March of 2022 by astronomers Bryce Bolin and Frank Masci from a wide field survey camera at the Zwicky Transient Facility (ZTF). It’s reported that the last time C/2022 E3 passed this close to the Earth was 50,000 years ago, so this is literally a once in a lifetime opportunity!
The comet was said to be the closest to our planet on February 1st at around 42 million km or 26 million miles away. Visibility was dependent on time and location, and was best seen in the dark, light pollution-less sky. Unfortunately, I never got to see the comet as I fell asleep and the skies weren’t the clearest, but I can wait another 50,000 years! Noticeable from its greenish hue, C/2022 E3 is certainly stunning, hopefully you all appreciate these photos as much as I do!
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Productive Habits (Part 2)
By Sarah Grover
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Welcome back to the next article in the series! Hopefully, you tried some tips from my previous article on using calendars for efficiency. I hope it worked perfectly! However, some may have discovered that calendaring that way just isn’t for you— and that’s okay. This month, I have my second tip for productivity: |
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Make an Efficient To-Do List
It is very important to realize that many things on your to-do list have different levels of importance and urgency. It is very effective to have four categories for your to-do list: Important & Urgent, Important but not Urgent, Urgent but not important, and Not Important nor Urgent. Many people fail to prioritize their list and end up checking off things on their list that don’t hold a great importance, or are simply untimely. With summer program applications and even college applications just around the corner, it is important to prioritize which things to do first. Some things are time sensitive and of high priority, so they should be categorized as such. Other things that are important but are not time sensitive, should be done at a later time. It might also be beneficial to have weekly to-do lists (with due dates next to them) next to your planner/calendar. If you use Google Calendar, Google Keep is a good option, but if you have a hand-held planner, I would recommend having a mini notebook dedicated to to-do lists with your planner at all times.
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Calendaring and efficient to-do lists are a killer combination, so try them out together and see what works! |
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Editors in Chief:
Devin Gowdy & Jaden Luke
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Steven Acuna Delgado
Michaela Gonzalez
Loralei Rohrbach
Anastasia Prusakova
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Sarah Grover
Blythe Jones
Charlotte Korer
Megan Morales
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Mimi Wilson
Katie Yeh
Kelly Nelson
Mariana Lopez
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